by Donna Torrence | Blackfilm.com
“I don’t want to be a victim. I want to be a voice,” says Ifrah Ahmed, who has become the voice and face of the fight to end female genital mutilation around the globe. A Girl From Mogadishu, a powerful drama about Ahmed’s life and journey, made its US premiere on July 15th on Showtime and will continue to air during the summer.
The film follows Ahmed, a little girl from war-ravaged Mogadishu, Somalia, as she endures horrific genital mutilation and makes a harrowing escape to asylum. She then goes on to defy the odds as a global activist working to end gender-based violence.
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Actress Aja Naomi King, portrays Ahmed and does an outstanding job carrying the film, which also stars Barkhad Abdi, our favorite Somali pirate from Captain Phillips, along with Orla Brady (Picard, Rose Plays Julie), Martha Canga Antonio (Black, Baptiste) and Somali icon, Maryam Mursal.
This is a great role for King who is an excellent dramatic actress ready to smash more leading lady roles. In the film, she became Ifrah, mastering the Somali accent without trip ups. Watching the film, I did not see actress Aja, I saw Ifrah – an afraid and yet strong young woman using her instincts to escape the violent city of Somalia and reach safety, finally, in Dublin, Ireland.
As law student Michaela Pratt on the Shonda Rhimes series How To Get Away With Murder, King works alongside my favorite dramatic actress and Academy Award winner, Viola Davis (Fences, The Help) and seems to effortlessly hold her own in the drama with top notch skills.
A Girl from Mogadishu is a Pembridge (Ireland) and Umedia (Belgium) production, in conjunction with Dune Film Productions (Morocco). It is written and directed by Ireland’s Mary McGuckian. The production has won the Cinema for Peace Women’s Empowerment Award at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival and has picked up a host of audience and jury awards during its international film festival run.
The film is an empowering testimony to the fighting spirit of all women. Once vowing to not back down from this fight, Ahmed’s journey takes her from Ireland, to Parliament, and to the United Nations. Her story has been heard around the world. Now young girls everywhere understand that the ritual of genital mutilation is wrong. The practice has been banned in Ireland and Ahmed is still meeting to impose bans in Somalia and other African nations.
Donna Torrence
Read from source Blackfilm